long story short I have tried 3 different libraries (1 on arduino.cc, 1 on adafruit, 1 on github)and Serial.print for the raw data received from the sensor and always 0's or 255 (255 might have been a fluke since it only showed once on the github library)

errors reported have mostly been timeout errors, with general fault and invalid value thrown into the mix at various configurations

so far it's all been attempted through various digital ports on the Arduino

DHT11 has 4 pins

1 = power

2 = signal (tried port 1-13) (with 10k jumper from power)

3 = dummy

4 = ground

still a greenhorn at writing Arduino code and this is the first sensor I've tried plugging in -- any ideas what I might be missing or data that I haven't reported that would be helpful in finding what direction to be looking?

I have been playing with the DHT11 sensors the past couple days and had much the same problem initially. I ended up having the pins reversed, (ie 1 for 4). The label facing AWAY from you, pin 1 is on left.